'It very much could fail': Hannah Gadsby readies for second Netflix launch

Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby, whose second stand-up comedy special, Douglas, streams worldwide on Tuesday, says she had "no plans to make it in America".

The 42-year-old Tasmanian vowed her widely successful show Nanette, which she created partly as a response to the bitter 2017 public debate around same-sex marriage, would be her swan song.

But then a filmed version of the performance – which won the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival's best comedy award and the 2017 Melbourne International Comedy Festival's Barry Award – was acquired by Netflix in 2018. It went on to become a streaming success story and win an Emmy.

Hannah Gadsby in 2016 with her dog Douglas, who is the namesake of her new stand-up show. Credit:Luis Ascui

"After a show like Nanette, that wasn't supposed to be successful, the fact that it was meant maybe I'm not a great judge of expectations," she tells The Sydney Morning Herald. "So what I did with Douglas was just accept it very much could fail."

Advertisement

Gadsby had planned to spend this week in Los Angeles for the Netflix launch of Douglas – named for her six-year-old Lagotto Romagnolo dog – until COVID-19 forced the cancellation of events. Now she has returned to Australia and has a new home in rural Victoria, where she lives with Douglas and her other dog, Jasper.

Loading

In Douglas, she spends the first 14 minutes hosing down expectations and promises the show is completely different to Nanette, which deals with homophobia and sexual abuse.

"I am fresh out of trauma, had I known trauma would be so popular in the context of comedy I would have budgeted a bit better," Gadsby says in Douglas.

She tells The Herald, "There was also a bit of self-preservation too... If I tried to do something in the same vein I'd have a limited shelf-life as a performer."

This show takes aim at everything from the anti-vax movement to the differences between Australians and Americans, whom she calls the "straight, white man of cultures".

"They are very optimistic and we are not, we tend to be more pragmatic. Also we're getting diseased by the worst aspects of American culture here at the moment," she says. "We shouldn't be having those protests about freedom here in Australia – that didn't start here, that started there."